Cloaked in Blood (21 page)

“This has been a long time coming, hasn’t
it, Helen?”

“Indeed it has.”

“What’re we really going to do about this
mess, now that our consciences are absent?”

I laughed.  At least we were on the
same page.  “Lyle Henderson has been ministering to Jerry Lowe
over at Dunhaven.  Johnny told me before he herded Levine back
out to OSI’s headquarters.  Do you want to kill my husband,
Danny?” I asked abruptly.

“Do you want to kill me?”

“I did when I first came into town.  In
fact, I debated whether or not I should even accept George Hardy’s
offer.  It would’ve been a hell of a lot easier to just… show
up and take care of the problem without anyone being the
wiser.”

He nodded curtly.  “What did Rick tell
you before you shot him?”

I fiddled with the sleeve of my shirt. 
“What did Masconi say before you dumped him at sea?”

“Fair enough.  We both have made
mistakes, although I’m starting to believe mine was more grievous
than yours.”

“Rick told me that he would expose my
relationship to Marcos through marriage if I didn’t destroy the
evidence the FBI had against him,” I said.  “He had no
intention of turning on the master.”

Danny nodded slowly.  “I suspected as
much, specifically after you filed for divorce.”

“What did you think when I showed up in
Darkwater Bay?”

It was his turn to chuckle.  “Pretty
much what you admitted.  I thought you were here to kill
me.  You can’t imagine my surprise when you came into that
interview room at Central Division that morning.”

“You really thought we had Gwen, that we’d
convinced her to give false testimony about your businesses?”

“Yeah,” he said.  “But when you said
she was gone, when I realized what you meant, I started to wonder
what was really going on.  See, I probably knew a hell of a
lot more about you than you knew about me.”  He
shrugged.  “Rick kept me informed of certain things, probably
to placate me and make me believe he still planned to give our
evidence against Uncle Sully to you.”

“Told you things like what?”

“That when the time came, you were so
straight, you’d have no problem quietly building a case against
Uncle Sully.  To be honest, he sounded almost…”

“Almost what?”

“Disgusted by it,” Datello admitted.

I gritted my teeth.  “My husband was
repulsed by me.  That’s what you’re really telling me. 
Well, if being morally flexible was attractive to him, he probably
died with a hard-on.  Probably the only one I ever gave him
where he didn’t have to pretend I was someone else.”

“Where do we go from here, Helen?  What
is it that Johnny thinks I know but haven’t shared?”

“I have no idea.  I’m not sure he gave
me his real motive for keeping you here, under his thumb.”

“Is that where you are too?”

I grinned.  “He thinks so.”

“Are you happy in this marriage?”

“I love him,” I said.  “But
happiness?  I’m not sure I know what that really is.  I
think you can relate to what I’m saying.  There’s always
something at the periphery of our lives, something dark, something
not quite legal.  It’s nipping at our heels, and no matter
what we try to do to make it disappear, to live outside of that
shadow –”

“It’s always scratching at the back door,
just waiting to make an appearance.  Or take over.”

I peered at him thoughtfully.  Datello
did get it.  He understood me, understood the things I felt
without a word necessary between us.  His wife was
right.  We were very much the same.

“Do you think it’s possible that Uncle Sully
is part of the slavery ring?  I find it beyond coincidental
that my company was used to facilitate such a reprehensible
business.”

“Danny, I honestly don’t know.”  A sigh
parted my lips.  “I don’t like coincidences, but it’s no
secret that you’ve been a villain in this city without doing a
thing to earn the black cape that goes along with the job.  It
could’ve been something as simple as using you for a
scapegoat.”

“Yet the men Southerby used at the medical
examiner’s office, the ones who intercepted me at the private air
strip I own, they worked for me, Helen.  At least, I thought
they did.”

“As did Captain Gutierrez and Destiny
Gerard,” I said.  “She’s the one you hired to replace
Salvatore Masconi after he died, correct?”

“After his arrest,” Danny clarified. 
“She was a recent graduate from Argyle University, came with very
high recommendations locally.”

“That’s right.  Tony Briscoe said you
basically cleaned house and got rid of the transplants you brought
in to run the casino operation and hired local people, that it
endeared you to the city a bit more.”

“The police have an odd way of looking at
things,” he scoffed.  “And Briscoe, yeah, I know of him, he’s
one of the worst.”

I leaned forward.  “The worst in what
way?”

“Part of Orion’s vendetta against me.”

“Can we just assume that all of that is in
the past now?  At least it is from Johnny’s perspective. 
I reminded him that you are innocent after all.”

“Except for feeding Masconi to the sharks,
bit by bit.”

“And Johnny looked the other way.  He
knew that the man didn’t just leave Darkwater Bay, Danny.  He
chose to do nothing because he thought Masconi got away with murder
too.  I reminded Johnny that he really is in no position to
judge you when he’s gone to questionable means to protect me from
what I deserve.”

“I guess if I can forgive you for Rick, he
ought to forgive me for Sister Agnes Marie’s altar.”

“At the very least.  Now tell me about
Gerard.  You said she came highly recommended.”

“Argyle,” he nodded.  “Good Christian
university.  Obviously they have had a few failures over the
years.”

“Meaning that Gerard was a bad person?”

“You disagree with that, after knowing her
involvement in Sofia Helene’s abduction?” Datello asked a bit
incredulously.

“People start their bad acts
somewhere.  You said she was highly recommended.  Do you
mean by the university?”

He nodded.  “She just finished her
MBA.  When the Sentinel splattered Sal’s arrest on the front
page, I fired him naturally.  The Bennetts were friends,
Helen.  But I had a lot of different interests at the time,
the logging company was still struggling under the new mandates for
reforestation.  We had some union woes with the trawling
business.  There were concerns that grew exponentially about
the casino after Sal’s arrest.  I needed someone local,
someone above reproach to take over day to day operations at the
resort and casino.”

“So you went to Argyle for help.”

Datello frowned.  “No, actually, their
board of regents approached me.  They suggested that I
consider a candidate from their school, an up-and-comer who showed
tremendous promise, someone who could ameliorate the image problems
Datello Enterprises faced.  I had a good relationship with
both Metro State University and Argyle.  In fact, we funded
environmental research grants to both that enabled them to grow
programs and bring in scientists that could help monitor the
environmental impact of industry in the region.”

“So you took their advice and hired
Gerard.”

“She was every bit as good for our public
image as the board of regents said she’d be,” Danny said.  “In
fact, she had such business savvy, it wasn’t long before she took
on an expanded role in Datello Enterprises beyond operations at the
Island Hotel Resort and Casino.  She became my chief financial
officer within five years.”

“Interesting.”

“Is it?  Is this the sort of thing your
husband thought would be helpful information?”

“Perhaps,” I said.  I rose and moved
toward the office, beckoning Danny to follow.  I opened the
browser on the computer.  “How often does this board of
regents change?  I assume they’re elected.”

“Sure they are,” Datello said.  “They
serve six year terms, but I can’t remember the last time the city
actually elected new members.  People are satisfied, and the
positions aren’t highly compensated.  It’s more of a prestige
thing, the sort of position that retired academics or
philanthropists seek out.  You know, the kind of people who
have no practical knowledge of the real world, but are good at
shepherding institutions like universities and art councils. 
In fact, I think a few of them are
on
the arts council in
Darkwater Bay.”

Something raised the hairs on the nape of my
neck.  My one and only conversation with my biological father
flitted through my memory.  Wasn’t he on the arts
council?  The voice of dissent when Pan Demon had its two-day
metal-fest at the city amphitheater.

A photo popped up on the screen.

“Isn’t that –”

“My biological father,” I ground the words
out like broken glass.  “I suppose he’s been a fixture at
Argyle for centuries too.”

“Yeah.  Also the arts council.  A
lot of charities in Darkwater Bay.  He probably had his undies
in quite a knot when Destiny was arrested.”

“Why would you assume that?”

Danny grinned sheepishly.  “Surely you
know about your own father, Helen.  The man’s a puritanical
pain in the ass.  He was dead set against legalizing
gambling.  He’s dead set against just about anything that
isn’t pious and holy.  He even hates the Catholic church.”

“That much I knew.  Other than how he’s
treated Crevan over the years, I’m blissfully ignorant of his
positions on most things.”

“He’s ultra conservative.  In fact, he
was a huge supporter of Terrell Sanderfield when Gene Sherman
proposed that he run against Joe Collangelo in the election this
fall.”

I swiveled in the chair.  “Now we’re
getting somewhere.  You said you went to Eugene Sherman
because you felt angry over Johnny’s deception, that he was really
the force behind OSI.”

“Damn right I was,” Danny snarled.  “It
was a huge slap in the face.  I supported Collangelo, not just
when he was running for governor, but when he was the State’s
Attorney General.  I was part of the committee that encouraged
him to run for governor in the first place.  I thought OSI was
a fantastic idea, and then all of a sudden, I realized that the guy
he put in charge wanted nothing but to put me in prison.”

It was understandable, his rage, that sense
of betrayal he must’ve felt.

“Collangelo is from Darkwater Bay, isn’t
he?”

“Yeah,” Danny said.  “We knew each
other growing up.  He was a good kid.  I wasn’t so good,
but I always liked him, respected him.”

“You knew Scott Madden, too, didn’t
you?”

Danny chuckled.  “He was Scott Goddard
when I knew him, but yeah, he was a year behind me in school. 
I wasn’t surprised that he grew up to be the
rock-star-bad-boy.  Now there was the only kid I knew with a
worse reputation than mine.  Too bad he snapped and killed
that murderer in January.”

“You ask me, he saved the taxpayers a real
headache,” I said.

“True.  It might’ve been hard to
convict Underwood, at least until he killed that pastor.”

“The pastor that was replaced by Lyle
Henderson,” I said.  “I’d sell my soul if I had one for five
minutes alone with good old Lyle.”

“Somehow I doubt your father would allow
that.  Or your husband, for that matter.”

“Daddy don’t mind what daddy don’t see,” I
said softly.  “Or Johnny.  Take your pick.  If I
didn’t go off the ranch from time to time, we’d be twiddling our
thumbs without answers at all.”

Datello grinned.  “So what’s our next
move?”

“These bastards have been watching me from
the day I showed up in Darkwater Bay, probably before then, truth
be told.  If Henderson was part of my abduction as an infant,
he’s been keeping tabs on me my whole life.  I’d like to turn
the tables on them.”

“How?”

“You.  And Dad.”

“But Lyle knows your father.”

“And he, like the rest of the world, thinks
that Dad is dead.  I know for a fact he hasn’t had time for
even minor plastic surgery like you received,” I said.  “Yet
he looks remarkably different beyond changing his hair color. 
Do you know how?  Botox?”

Danny laughed.  “I didn’t ask,
Helen.  In fact, I didn’t know anything about your father
until Mark Seleeby showed up trying to build a case against you for
Rick’s murder.  I’d never seen him before until he opened the
screen in the confessional.”

“He looks different, is the point. 
Younger.  Regardless, when people believe you’re dead, they’re
not looking for you.  I want you and Dad to keep an eye on
Henderson.”

“And what’re you doing in the meantime?”

I procured the DNA sample from the pocket of
my sweater and tapped it into my open palm.  “I’m going to
find out who Melissa Sherman really is.  Can you call Dad and
get him on board with surveillance?  He may have to work alone
for a little while, at least until Johnny and I can figure out how
to get David Levine out of town.”

Chapter 21

Maya grinned when I walked into her office
without knocking.  “A phone call was all I requested. 
Have I done something wrong?”

I handed her the vial with the swab of Dad’s
skin cells.  “What did Johnny tell you about the sample he
delivered earlier?”

“Just that you’re trying to figure out
Melissa Sherman’s true identity.  We’ve already got an idea
who she is?”

The last time I shared a secret with Maya,
she betrayed my confidence.  The fact that she was nearly on
par with the police as the county’s chief medical examiner, and the
fact that she was involved in a serious relationship with the head
of Darkwater Bay’s Crime Scene Division made me reluctant to be
more than superficial and vague.  “It’s a long shot,
Maya.  But, you never know.  “I’ve got another sample
too, something you might find mitochondrial DNA on.  At least
there’s precedent getting skin cells from saliva off decades old
envelopes.”